In the mining industry or explosive industry, the use of shock tubes has grown in popularity to supplant electric wires and electric blasting caps. A shock tube (e.g., shock tubing, a shock fuse, impulse propagating tubing, signal transmission line, or the like) is a plastic capillary tube with inner surface which is coated with a reactive substance, such as a thin layer of a detonating or deflagrating explosive composition. Initiating the shock tube is often accomplished by a shock tube tip (a firing pin, a firing tip, or the like) for creating a shock wave that initiates the explosive lining of the shock tube. However, the shock tube tip wears out after repeated use to initiate blasts. The life of the shock tube tip typically wears out after about 200-500 shocks. Thus, at some point, the shock tube tip may become worn enough so as to no longer reliably initiate a blast. A failure of the shock tube tip may lead to misfires, delay in production due to no-fires or misfires, a safety hazard, and possibly create many complications with attendant high-cost associated with a failure. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a way to test the operating condition of the shock tube tip in advance of initiating a blast.